Volume 16

by Reki Kawahara

  Cold. Numbing. Like being pierced through with needles of ice.

  He had tasted this sensation a long, long time ago. In the «Fledging Valley» not far from his village. His first trial. When he went to steal snapping birds’ eggs, in that moment the mother swooped down from above…

  Sigrosig continued his charge even as he widened his two eyes and searched for the origin of that sensation.

  He saw a small, small human at the front of the Human Empire ranks, in the exact middle of the gorge. Long hair with a slender body. A female—a knight adorned in glistening silver armor.

  He saw a dragon knight of the Human Empire soaring beyond the mountain range at the edge just once before. He had thought to crush that knight upon landing, but the knight flew away into the mountain range after circling two, three times in the sky.

  That bunch was worthless.

  Nonetheless. In that female knight’s black eyes.

  Sigrosig vividly felt the gaze from the knight despite their distance apart exceeding three hundred mel. The fear or fright, which should have been present, were missing, making up less than even a speck of salt would after falling in a large kettle of hot water.

  Instead, it had the coolness of ascertaining and targeting one’s prey.

  …Hunt, him?

  To hunt him, Sigrosig, the giants’ chief and thus, the mightiest warrior among the Dark Empire’s five races?

  “Hgg……”

  A shrill shriek, unsuited to his grim expression, leaked out from the depths of his throat.

  Strength left his two legs and the large hammer in his right hand grew terribly heavy. Sigrosig’s posture crumbled as he stumbled over.

  An instant.

  Zubaaa!! A ray of dazzling light shot out from the sword the female knight propped up with that buzz unlike any sound he had heard before. It stabbed through the right side of the chest of the giant running right in front of Sigrosig without any resistance.

  If Sigrosig had not tumbled, that light would have blown away his heart next.

  Instead, the white light vaporized part of the giant chief’s disheveled red hair and his right ear decorated with his prey’s teeth.

  Piercing through another two of his allies running behind, it dissipated into specks of light, leaving behind those fatal wounds.

  Sigrosig’s consciousness could hardly register the three giants who lost all of their Life in an instant and fell like logs. Even the intense pain burning at the right of his head was stabbed like some tiny insect before the humongous emotion assaulting him.

  That was, in short, terror.

  Sigrosig shamefully continued sitting on his backside as his jaw chattered in his trembling.

  Even when he witnessed the upheaval during Dark General Shasta’s rebellion, while he was surprised, there was no fear. The ones Shasta killed after turning into that black tornado were no more than a feeble assassin and those goblins. Though he had to admit Emperor Vector’s power, he had no issue there as he was no human but a god of old.

  Yet why had that mere female knight inspired such fright in himself?

  Sigrosig could hardly bear to be paralyzed in fear from a mere human as his opponent.

  “No… No, no, no…”

  Smoke rose from his burnt hair as the giant chief moaned.

  Impossible. He could not be frightened. White fireworks shot off deep in his mind as intense pain ran through it the harder he fretted. His mouth and tongue convulsed rapidly, spewing out uninterrupted words that came out as strange noises.

  “Nononono, kill, kill, killkellkeldell, delldelldelldelldeldel.”

  In this instant, the «core»—the self-image of himself as the strongest—rooted firmly in the middle of Sigrosig’s fluct light along with this «situation» where he was paralyzed in fear induced unavoidable conflicts, bringing on the collapse of light quantum circuits within his light cube.

  The giant’s two eyes released crimson light.

  “Dell, dell, de—————”

  While the warriors of the giant race watched on in shock from all around, Sigrosig sprang up with force.

  Swinging about his gigantic warhammer as though it was a tiny twig, he restarted his charge with tremendous vigor.

  Sending those of the same race in front flying to the left and right, he caught up with the vanguard goblin force before long. Moist noises and shrill screams continuously welled up from his feet upon him pushing on without any attempt to let down on his momentum, but the giant no longer perceived those with his consciousness breaking apart.

  The command to kill that female knight alone resounded through the core of his head like a broken bell.

  * * *

  In the end, the chiefs of the plains goblins and of the giants underestimated the existences known as integrity knights.

  However, the chief of the mountain goblins, Kosogi, who led the invading army’s vanguards’ right flank was different. He had paid a high price to study the tremendous military might the integrity knights possessed not long ago.

  The excavation of the buried cave at the northern end of the mountain range at the edge and the invasion of Rulid Village, by that large force of goblins and orcs, were planned by Kosogi. Though he stayed put at Obsidia Palace himself, he had granted troops to three of his brothers whom he shared blood with, instigated those of the orc race, and carried out the invasion strategy.

  However, it ended as a tragedy. The few soldiers who barely escaped alive unanimously cried out unbelievable stories in front of Kosogi who was astonished over the information that the force was utterly annihilated, his brothers killed in battle.

  According to them, the joint invasion force of over two hundred goblins and orcs were made to flee by a single human knight and a flying dragon.

  However hard he found that to believe, Kosogi was no fool to abandon for nothing a lesson learnt at the cost of many sacrifices. He decided to never again commit the foolishness of challenging the integrity knights of the Human Empire to a frontal assault.

  However, in this particular major invasion, the role ordered of the mountain goblins by Emperor Vector was precisely that.

  The dark arts users’ chief, Dee Ai El must be well aware of those dreadful integrity knights. That would be exactly why she offered this strategy up to the emperor.

  To use up the goblins, orcs, and giants and create a disordered melee in the valley before reducing them all to ashes along with the integrity knights.

  They could only obey while the emperor approved of Dee’s plan. Kosogi racked his brains over three days and nights. How could he carry out the order for a tactless charge while escaping from the jaws of death formed by the integrity knights in front and the dark arts users behind.

  The intelligent scheme he finally worked out took the form of those small grey balls distributed to his subordinates.

  Having charged over the valley the moment the emperor issued his order, Kosogi discovered a tall integrity knight clad in glittering armor far in front.

  Though that was not Alice Synthesis Thirty who destroyed the invasion force in Rulid Village but her disciple, Eldrie Synthesis Thirty-one, Kosogi could not distinguish between them. Either way, they were demons scattering death without mercy to the goblin race.

  “Right… throw them!!”

  Kosogi issued a new command the moment they arrived fifty mel from the knights.

  At the same time, he crushed firmly the small ball held in his own left hand.

  Small flames leaked out from the cracked ball with crackling noises. Of course, it was no sort of gunpowder. Underworld, as it currently was, had no objects on that level of civilization.

  Simultaneously, it was no thermal element generated by arts. Inserted within the balls were small beetles known as «Firestarter Beetles» which lived solely at the volcano at the northern end of the land of darkness, a holy ground for the mountain goblins. They would scatter blazing hot flames and burn one’s hands if crushed on accident.

  The grey
ball enveloping the firestarter beetles were from the north as well, it was formed by drying a kind of moss out in the sun, kneading the powder made, and drying it once more. As it let out a large quantity of smoke once ignited, it was originally used as a signal. However, through the technique of concentrating like the Assassins’ Guild, Kosogi had amplified the objects’ effect by tens of times.

  As a result—

  The moss balls thrown by Kosogi and his subordinates as one became what could be considered as impressive smoke grenades. Ignited by the firestarter beetles, the balls spewed out dense smoke that hid away even one’s own nose and shrouded the entire northern half of the valley stretching out east and west.

  Not even the goblins with their excellent night vision could fight properly within this smoke.

  However, Kosogi’s scheme was not to defeat the enemies by slipping into the smoke. Immediately before diving into the dense smokescreen, he shouted out his third command.

  “All of you, ruuuunn!!”

  Returning the mountain knife to his back at once, he landed both hands onto the ground. With their small statures, goblins reached no higher than humans’ knees when scrambling on all fours. The smoke was faint closer to the ground with the enemy soldiers’ positions barely visible.

  The five thousand mountain goblin soldiers with Kosogi, their chief, completely ignored Eldrie and the guards and slipped past, running on farther into the valley.

  The emperor’s orders were merely to charge into the enemy army. It did not specify which part to target. Kosogi set up a plan to pass by the enemy’s main force, especially the integrity knights, without engaging them and to assail their reinforcement units behind.

  By sneaking in beyond the front lines, they would avoid the combined attack from the dark arts users and orc archers that would eventually rain down from behind. They would return about and finish off the integrity knights and guards after the flames and arrows deal them a devastating blow, or simply flee off into the endless Human Empire otherwise.

  Thus, among the three openings of hostilities in the hundred mel wide valley, the north side alone advanced without bloodshed.

  Just about as the second unit of guards in the Human Empire Defense Army stationed behind Eldrie finally noticed the disappearance of the high ranking integrity knight commanding them, Renri Synthesis Twenty-seven.

  * * *

  The first casualty from the Defense Army was the elderly guard struggling by Deusolbert’s immediate side at the right flank of where the first unit held down the front line.

  He did not manage to stop the hand axes thrown by the goblins with his shield.

  He was a lower noble that had long commanded a platoon in the Wesdarath West Empire’s imperial guards. Though he certainly had skill with the sword, he could not help but to approach the undisputable descent of his Life and the axe that dug deep into his wrinkled neck dealt him a completely fatal wound. Not even the healing arts hurriedly recited by the ascetics party on standby behind could make up for that damage.

  Deusolbert had paused his random firing immediately and performed a high ranking healing art on the fallen old guard. However, the guard shook his head and shouted out while vehemently vomiting blood.

  “You must not!! This is, truly, this old man’s sacred task and Life… esteemed knight, I trust you… with our home……”

  A moment later, the old guard passed away with what was left of his life force released as space resources.

  Deusolbert bit down hard and shot at the goblin who had hurled that hand axe with the blaze from the Conflagrant Flame Bow powered by the old guard’s life.

  The guards of the Defense Army continued falling after that, too, sporadically yet without end. Tens of those numbers among the demi-humans lost their lives as well, obeying the command for their ruthless charge to the very end.

  Much of the flood of Life resources dispersed throughout the battlefield rose as specks of light—

  Far, into the skies above the gorge.

  Where a single flying dragon hovered under the cover of night.

  Spiraling as they coalesced towards the integrity knight, clad in golden armor, standing atop its back.

  * * *

  He had neither the time nor space to hide himself.

  Renri curled up his back within the darkness in a corner of the supplies tent and awaited the approaching silhouette with his arms around his knees.

  The round hole for sunlight faintly shone upon girls who seemed to be fifteen or sixteen years old. One had vivid red hair while the other’s hair was a deep brown. They wore light armor above the grey tunic and skirt that appeared part of some academy’s uniform. Slender, straight swords hung at the left of their waists.

  He held no recollection of their faces, but they were likely guards from the common folk rather than knights, judging from their equipment grade.

  What seemed out of place was the metallic chair pushed by the dark brown haired girl. A black-haired youth sat upon the chair, furnished with four wheels instead of legs, with his head hung down. Renri’s eyes were drawn towards his face.

  Approximately twenty? Not only was his frame horribly thin, his right arm was also missing from where his shoulder ended. He could only consider him weaker than the girls from a single glance. However, Renri understood at once that the two longswords held tightly by the young man’s left arm—commanding tremendous presence despite their sheaths—were divine instruments, possibly ranked higher than the Twin Edged Wings.

  How could it be? Even if he ignored how he was sanctioned to own those, it still required physical strength on the level of integrity knights to have them on one’s lap like that. However, the youth who blankly stared into space could hardly possess such strength.

  He thought to that point before it seemed the girls noticed Renri cowering in the darkness, freezing up after drawing sharp breaths.

  It took surprisingly little time before the red-haired girl reached out towards her sword’s grip with her right hand.

  Renri spoke hoarsely before she drew.

  “I’m not your enemy… sorry for frightening you. Mind if I stand? I’ll show you my hands.”

  “…Go on.”

  Waiting until the girl stiffly responded, Renri gently rose. After taking one, two steps forward with both hands raised, the afterglow from the roof’s hole lit up his armor of the highest grade an the divine instrument on both sides of his waist. The girl curtly gulped and straightened up in a hurry.

  Their right hands left the sword handle and chair, and formed a sign of respect before their left breasts.

  “Es… esteemed knight! We are terribly sorry!”

  Renri shook his head and interrupted the red-haired girl who continued her apologies with a pale face.

  “No… it was my fault for startling you. Besides, I’m… no longer an integrity knight…”

  Though the latter half barely even made it as a whisper, the girls blinked with puzzled looks. Their confusion came as no surprise. The white mantle hanging around his back and the cross joined with a ring, the Axiom Church’s crest, shining in the middle of his breastplate served as definite proof of his status as an integrity knight.

  Renri placed his right fingers at the crest, as though to hide it while exposing the truth with his twisted mouth in self-depreciation.

  “I left my station and fled earlier. The fighting had already begun at the frontmost line. It must be chaos at the unit under my command about now. There must be causalities too. And despite that, I can’t move from here; how could I be considered a knight?”

  He bit down hard on his lips while glancing upwards.

  He saw himself in the widely opened eyes, in the colors of autumn, belonging to the red-haired girl.

  Grey hair hanging down slightly from the forehead. Those round cheeks. And two feminine eyes with long lashes, lacking all knightly fortitude— A failure of a knight, confined eternally at fifteen years old.

  It was when he quickly averted his e
yes from those features he despised.

  The red-haired girl covered her mouth with a hand as though assailed by some new cause for surprise.

  “……?”

  Renri frowned in suspicion before the girl averted her eyes this time and shook her head slightly.

  “I-I’m sorry. It’s, nothing…”

  Taking the place of the red-haired girl who continued looking down, the girl with dark brown hair who kept silent until now stepped forward and stated her name with a faint yet firm voice.

  “We apologize for not introducing ourselves earlier. We belong to the supply unit, I am Novice Trainee Ronye Arabel and this is Novice Trainee Tiezé Shtolienen. And this is… Elite Swordsman-in-training Kirito.

  «Kirito».

  Renri let out a soft voice from the immense shock of hearing that name.

  He knew him. Was he not one of the mere two rebels who cut through the Central Cathedral half a year ago? He was the very one who Renri was thawed to intercept, the one who he missed out on engaging due to his late awakening.

  That meant this skinny swordsman was the one who defeated the highest minister, Administrator? Was that missing right arm a relic from battle?

  Renri drew his right foot back, feeling a pressure that he could do nothing about from the youth who kept quiet with a hollow expression. Showing no sign she noticed that movement, the small girl who seemed to be named Ronye continued in a tone tinged with resolve.

  “Erm… I have no opinion regarding your circumstances, esteemed knight. While we do belong to the Defense Army, we, too, remain here in the back without engaging at the front lines. …That said, that is currently our responsibility. We are tasked to protect this man at all cost from Knight Alice…”

  Alice. —Alice Synthesis Thirty.

  The young prodigious knight, a stark contrast of Renri on all fronts. She should be preparing for the Defense Army’s secret plan even at the current moment, a large-scale art to halt the front lines on her own.

  As though cornering Renri, tormented by an emotion that made him feel even smaller, Novice Trainee Arabel added to her words with a desperate look.